Lawyers are preparing criminal and civil charges following one of the darkest weeks of anti-Semitism in South Africa. There have been a slew of vile incidents that sent shock waves through the community.

The SA Friends of the Beit Halochem Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation was established in Johannesburg in 1982, its primary goal being to help and support Zahal disabled veterans by raising funds to help them return and resume their normal lives as soon as possible.

Wearing a yarmulke, Geoffrey Modise Menachem Ramokgadi draws stares from most people he encounters, whether in his adopted country of Swaziland, his home town of Rustenburg, or in the synagogues and Jewish shops of Johannesburg.

Devotion to the cause of the State of Israel flourishes in the most unlikely places, even in societies where the Jewish presence is small to non-existent. Such is the case in Mozambique, where the work of Beth-El Associacao Crista Amigos De Israel - Mozambican Christian Friends of Israel - testifies to how much can be achieved by those inspired by their Christian faith to promote the Israeli cause, despite adverse conditions.

JNF’s unique “Blue Boy Box” now lives at King David Linksfield Pre-Primary so that children of each generation learn the importance of tzedakah (charity or welfare). It is the responsibility of Jews all over the world to build Israel, develop it and nurture it as the home of the Jewish nation

“Knowledge is Light” was our school motto when I was a child in Durban. The importance of education was made clear to us from as far back as I can remember. It wasn’t taken for granted. A good education was a privilege.

European nations must increase their efforts to ensure security for the continent’s Jews in the face of widespread anti-Semitism, the Council of the European Union said in a declaration that one Jewish group called “unprecedented”.

I am in Buenos Aires to report on the G20 world leaders summit. It has been a diplomatic test for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. It was his first international gathering after a damning Central Intelligence Agency report blamed him for ordering the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October.

The Israeli gymnastics team was out in full force at 48th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships that began at Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday. There are five males and two females in the team headed by new Israeli sensation Artem Dolgopyat. The others are Alexander Shatilov, Ilan Korchak, Andrey Medvedev, and Michael Sorokine, while the women are Ofir Netzer and Meitar Lavy.

South Africa woke up last week to yet another delegation of Hamas in the country. South Africa under the African National Congress (ANC) has always been the world’s “rogue democracy”, engaging with all manner of dictators and autocrats. But why the specific interest in the Gaza-based Palestinian terrorist organisation?

There is no doubt that the Jewish community should not only thank Bowmans for its report, but also compliment it on the amount of work conducted, and its investigative ingenuity in arriving at the conclusions it did in the Stan & Pete kashrut investigation.

With Prince William’s historic visit to Israel this week, all eyes have been trained on the Jewish capital. It may have taken 70 years, but the first official visit by a member of the British Royal family began in Israel on Monday, when William, the Duke of Cambridge, arrived in Tel Aviv.

Some 5 600 emissaries (shluchim) from Chabad-Lubavitch from all over the world gathered at the Pier 8 warehouse in Brooklyn, New York this week for the opening of their four-day annual international conference and banquet, 75 years after the arrival of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from Europe.

“The greatness of our nation is that our people are great. We are a nation of heroes, of people with good and decent moral fibre who will not tolerate our country being plundered!” So said Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein in Pretoria this morning.“This is a struggle for accountability and justice,” Goldstein told the crowd (which included prominent Jewish CEOs like Adrian Gore, Stephen Koseff and Michael Katz). “This struggle is about sovereignty. The power of the people always triumphs in the end.”

Parshot Festivals

Inside/Outside

Some arguments are petty affairs between insecure individuals, while others are classic differences of opinion between people of stature, where each opinion is worthy of consideration.

by
RABBI YOSSY GOLDMAN, SYDENHAM SHUL | Jun 14, 2018

This week’s Parsha tells the story of the mutiny of Korach, a cousin of Moses who challenged his authority. In the end, Korach and his henchmen were swallowed by the earth in a divine display of rather unearthly justice.

The Midrash reveals the behind-the-scenes dialogue between these men. Remember, Korach was no pushover. Besides being of noble lineage, he was clever, wealthy, and charismatic. Korach asked Moshe: Does a house full of holy books still require a Mezuzah? Moshe answered that it did. Korach scoffed at the idea, ridiculing Moshe. The little Mezuzah contains but two chapters of Torah, the Shema Yisrael. A whole houseful of books with the entire Torah won’t do the trick, and a little Mezuzah will? It doesn’t make sense, he argued.

Why was Moshe’s answer correct? What, indeed, is the significance of a small parchment on the doorpost in relation to a library inside? The Lubavitcher Rebbe, whose Yahrtzeit is observed this Shabbos, explained that it all depends on location. The books are inside. The Mezuzah is outside. When there are Jewish texts inside our study and living rooms, it indicates that the home is Jewish. This is as it should be. But what happens when we leave the comfortable confines of our home? Do we then cease to be Jewish?

The Mezuzah is placed at the threshold of our homes, at the juncture and crossover between our inner and outer lives. As we make the transition from private person to public citizen we need to be reminded who we are, and that we take our identity with us wherever we go. There is only One G-d, says the little scroll, whether in our private domain or in the big, wide world.

One of the many works by Pulitzer Prize winning author Herman Wouk is an autobiographical novel titled Inside, Outside, in which he portrays his inner struggle in straddling these two worlds. His pious, Talmudist zayde had a profound influence on him, but so did Hollywood and Broadway. It took him a long time to find his way and settle into an observant Jewish lifestyle while still writing bestsellers.

Being Jewish “inside” is relatively easy. It’s when we hit the “outside” that we encounter temptation and turmoil. The challenge every Jew faces is to remain proudly Jewish in the face of conflicting cultures, curious looks, and often hostile attitudes.

Moshe rejected Korach’s argument with good reason. The Mezuzah does not replace the need for Jewish libraries, but it serves as a perennial reminder on our doorways. As we step out of our home to enter the outside world, it beckons us to take our G-d and our Torah, our values and our traditions, with us.